BBC

Let the speculation begin. The BBC is holding an event next week, on the same day and exactly the same time that iPad 2 is to be announced. The Apple event starts at 10am PST and the BBC event starts at 6pm GMT (which are exactly the same). If true, it looks like there could be some video chatting between the two companies from across the pond. Read More

We heard about the BBC’s new iPad app for the iPlayer service yesterday (Android users, be patient, it’s coming), but the player itself escaped description. Today brings a hands-on from Pocket-Lint, who pronounce the app very strong, though the lack of offline viewing, they say, is troublesome. Read More

We first heard about the BBC’s iPlayer a few years ago and for awhile it wasn’t doing too well. Then more and more people started catching on to the whole ‘watch TV on your own time’ thing, and iPlayer got really popular. I blame part of that on great shows like the UK Office and Top Gear UK — too bad the US counterparts aren’t as desirable. To keep… Read More

The much anticipated Top Gear USA debuts this fall on the History Channel, and until now, has lacked one important item: The Stig. That is until a new rumor has mention that there will be a Stig and the Stig will drive. Read More

The Beeb: not a fan of 3D TV. Well, not a fan of the confusion surrounding its deployment. The BBC, in a recent interview, said that it’s not sure which direction 3D TV is heading, so it cannot commit to anything, much less a full deployment, any time soon. Read More

It’s a trend that is highly unlikely to happen in the US due to its ubiquitous privatization of, well, everything. However in good old Europe, where control of the media is often under the hood of governmental institutions such as the BBC in the UK, or ARD in Germany, on the one hand, and in the hands of private media companies on the other, problems can arise.
More recently this has… Read More

The BBC’s video on demand service, iPlayer is introducing social networking features which should further boost the uptale of Twitter and Facebook in the UK – as if they needed any boosting. The new iPlayer Beta is set to go live officially at the end of June.
Twitter, Facebook and Windows Live Messenger will be linked to a user’s “BBC ID” which they get when… Read More

One great thing about the internet is the number of people offering advice. Of course, sometimes you need to take that advice with a grain of salt, but photography advice is usually safe. Case in point; BBC’s Wildlife Magazine published a series of Photo Masterclasses in 2006/2007. The information still holds true now (theory rarely changes) and is definitely worth a read. Read More

[UK] Yep. You read that right. News has broke that the BBC News’ newly appointed Social Media Editor hasn’t signed up to Twitter prior to today. In other words, he’s a newbie. As a result, let’s just say that there’s a bit of a Twitter storm brewing. Read More

Latest Crunch Report

Wee Scott Campbell of Aberdeen, Scotland is 13 years old and sent us an email last week asking if he could write for us. What he lacks in physical age he makes up for in chutzpah. And so, much to my surprise, I wake up this morning to discover young Campbell on BBC comparing an iPod to a Walkman with his mum and generally impressing the heck out of us.
The bairn writes:
My dad had told me it… Read More

The somewhat depressing and controversial possibility of a newspaper bailout turned into a stone-cold reality in the past few months as politicians, including Sen. John Kerry, Sen. Ben Cardin and President Obama, have hinted at giving the newspaper industry a life vest to save a sinking industry.
Kerry, in his dire remarks at the Senate hearing on “Future of Journalism” a few… Read More

So the BBC has an upcoming six-part series dubbed South Pacific and to help create some hype for the show they released this footage of Dylan Longbottom in “a 12 foot monster barrel wave.” Before I spout off about why that statement is ridiculous I’ll get through the rest of the nitty gritty.
Aussie cameraman Bali Strickland was in the water filming Longbottom with a… Read More

The BBC has released this helpful infographic to let everyone out there know that DRM isn’t just simple — it’s fun! Of course, you’d have to be a goddamn PhD of doublespeak to make any sense of it, but who isn’t these days? Read More

“Broadcast 2.0″: a swanky new term for the convergence of Internet video and social media. BBC is working on integrating this idea into their iPlayer, launched a year ago in December 2007.
Anthony Rose, head of the iPlayer online broadcasting project for the BBC, is working towards a social networking player where your friends are going to choose what you watch. Upcoming… Read More

Really, your child is not that cute.
Yes, I’m sure you think your child is adorable, but unfortunately, he, she or it just doesn’t have what we are looking for. Thank you for your time… and your information.
The BBC is responsible for a stolen data stick that contained the private information of hundreds of children. The group of children auditioned for an upcoming BBC show… Read More

At Germany’s new grocery story of the future (already in use by residents of the present) shoppers can use mobile phones to check out while they shop. The store has created free software for your phone that allows you to use your camera to capture barcodes as you shop. Once finished, just press a button and all your purchases come up as a single bar code. Slide your phone under the… Read More

Want to show off your fancy new HDTV and Blu-ray player? Yes, you do! This summer will see the release of “The BBC High-Definition Natural History Collection,” a collection of some of the best high-def nature programming money can buy. The collection has a few episodes from series like “Planet Earth” (which is amazing, by the way), “Galapagos” and… Read More

The BBC has been testing a new service called SoundIndex, which lists the top 1,000 artists based on discussions crawled from Bebo, Last.fm, Google Groups, iTunes, MySpace and YouTube. The top five bands according to SoundIndex right now are Coldplay, Rihanna, The Ting Tings, Duffy and Mariah Carey , but the index is refreshed every six hours.
This is somewhat similar to Songkick’s… Read More

I applaud the Beeb’s white hat hacking of Facebook. (Reminder: for all your black hat needs, look no further.) Whereas the AP was content a few days ago to sound the alarm over Facebook apps using your info for stupid purposes, the BBC hired someone to do some real theoretical damage.
What’s most scary about the application developed by the Beeb is that you yourself don’t have… Read More

This is just off the chain. I knew elephants were good painters, but filmmakers? A new BBC series used specially trained elephants to follow a group of tiger cubs and their mother around in a jungle for the duration of their cubhood. I’m not sure if you heard me correctly, they used specially trained elephants. Elephants trained to frame shots and hold their mounted hi-def cameras steady. Read More